One of the more surprising parts of the transition to Apple (AAPL) Silicon was the Mac Studio: a new desktop resembling two Mac Minis stacked, more powerful chips, and an extensive cooling system. Now, alongside unveiling the Apple Vision Pro, Mac Pro, and 15-inch MacBook Air, we have the first upgrade to the Mac Studio.
It keeps the same sleek box with plenty of ports but tosses inside the M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip, essentially making one of the most powerful Macs even more powerful. Still, it’s designed with creators in mind, as it can crush any animation, photo, or video edit.
I've spent the past few days with the M2 Max-powered Mac Studio, and it gives me a tremendous amount of power to run my daily tasks efficiently and scale to go further. It starts at $1,999 but can be scaled higher depending on specs.
It is best for folks who need power and are likely in the creative wheelhouse. Similar to the M2 vs. M1 laptops, if you already have a Mac Studio with M1 Max or M1 Ultra, you likely don’t need to upgrade. But this is an excellent machine to jump too for those who've been waiting to upgrade to a new Mac, maybe sitting on an older iMac.
- Apple Mac Studio With M2 Max (12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU), 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage ($1,999 at Adorama or B&H Photo)
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An Unassuming Rounded Steel Cube
The Mac Studio is a compact, discreet computer like a Mac Mini. It is just 3.2 inches tall and 7.7 inches wide and deep, essentially looking stellar on any desk as a rounded square cube. It contains either an M2 Max or an M2 Ultra chip, RAM, storage, and an active cooling system. The M2 Max version I’ve been testing weighs 5.9 pounds, while the Ultra is a bit heavier at 7.9 pounds.
The Studio isn’t shy about ports, which is an excellent thing. Up-front, you get two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports and an SDXC card slot. Once you’re back from a shoot, you can easily plug a drive in or pop in an SD card slot.
The port party continues on the back with four additional Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, a newer HDMI port, a 10GB ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a power port. There are plenty of vents on the rear and bottom. The latter sits as an elevated circle that makes the Mac Studio look like it is hovering. Unless you’re pushing it with hefty tasks, you won’t hear that fan kick in either.
It’s a straightforward design that masks a lot of power. You also have a white, circular LED on the front, indicating when the Mac Studio is on, and a black Apple logo is on top. While the display you connect the Mac Studio to will likely bring better audio--or you could plug in speakers--there is also a built-in speaker inside the Mac.
Just an Immense Amount of Power
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My daily workflow consists of a few apps--Google Chrome, Slack, Monday.com, Photos, Pixelmator, Safari, Messages, Notes, FaceTimes, and various video calls--and on some days, it also scales to more processor-intensive tasks like Final Cut Pro for video editing. Even with keeping all those applications open at once and a dozen tabs in Safari and Chrome, the Mac Studio has absolutely no challenge keeping up. Even exporting a 4K video shot on an iPhone in ProRes in Final Cut Pro didn't slow things down.
It's a common trope of any Mac powered by Apple Silicon, but the Studio feels like an even larger potential runway. And it excels with those creative tasks because of the Media Engine components of the M2 Max or M2 Ultra chips.
The variant of the Mac Studio I've been testing features an M2 Max Chip with a 12-Core CPU, 38-Core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine that is paired with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. That's an upgrade over the base 30-Core GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage that costs $1,999. You can also further configure the M2 Max Studio with up to 8TB of storage and up to 96GB of RAM.
Either route, you get a video decode engine, two video encode engines, and two encode and decode engines that are designed to work with ProRes. This, paired with at least a 12-core CPU and 30-Core GPU, let you ostensibly crush any task you need. You can easily do a multi-stream 4K or 8K project in Final Cut Pro, which I attempted and successfully exported, as well as a massive project in Logic with hundreds of instruments, a range of edits in Photoshop or even 3D animation in Maya.
You likely won't find yourself hitting a wall, especially if your workflows involve living within these Pro-grade applications, but that's a good thing as you're paying more for the power of the Mac Studio. Now that the introduction and move over to Apple Silicon is complete, many more developers and applications have rolled out support and optimized to take advantage of these powerful chipsets.
From M1 Max to M2 Max, you can expect the CPU to be 20% faster and the GPU up to 30% faster. That's a big leap even if you come from a generation-one Mac Studio. But folks upgrading from an Intel-based 27-inch iMac, an older Mac Mini, or even a MacBook Pro will be in for a serious jump, and it will be the giant leap that was the first foray with Apple Silicon again.
You can even scale for gaming here--I could run and play through a bit of Resident Evil Village, which is optimized and re-released for Apple Silicon. I could also tackle a more family-friendly journey in Disney Dreamlight Valley or Apple Arcade titles.
For most people, the base M2 Max Mac Studio can power through nearly any type of task, and that's impressive, but where it shines is how it can cut through most creative functions like a clean knife through fresh butter.
Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse or Trackpad
The Mac Studio only comes with the computer and a power cord in the box. You get the flexibility to bring your own accessories, which means running out and purchasing them or reusing ones you may have.
Thanks to all the ports, you get flexibility with pairing a monitor. You can opt for Samsung’s Smart M8 that connects with a single plug or opt for the more premium Apple Studio Display.
For $1,599, you get a 27-inch Retina 5K display that delivers immersive visuals capped at a 60Hz refresh rate, up to 600-nits of brightness, and a 5120 x 2880 resolution. Expectedly, it pair seamlessly with any Mac and offers great audio from a six-speaker system with integrated force-canceling woofers. It also boasts a 12-megapixel ultra wide camera that supports CenterStage, three USB-C ports, and one Thunderbolt 3 port. It’s pricey but luckily, Amazon tends to discount it; right now, it’s $100 off at $1,449.
You can really pair any Bluetooth or wired keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to the Mac Studio. There is some extra nice integration with Apple’s Magic Keyboard that includes a Touch ID sensor. The fingerprint sensor lets you unlock or authenticate with just the tap of a finger.
Is the Mac Studio Worth It?
If you’re looking for a powerful Mac to easily knock out and be fruitful for creative tasks like video editing, photo edits, or animation, you can stop your search at the Mac Studio. It’s more costly than a Mac Mini or an iMac, but if you want the ultimate workstation that doesn’t take up your entire desk, it has the proper hardware to do the job with no fuss. I have a feeling many folks will find their needs are met with M2 Max, but M2 Ultra scales things even further.
- Apple Mac Studio With M2 Max (12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU), 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage ($1,999 at Adorama or B&H Photo)
With a starting price of $1,999, it’s also a costly solution that doesn’t include a monitor. If you think you can get by with slightly less power in the creative department, consider a Mac Mini, which can be configured with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip. Of course, you can also try to find a Mac Studio with M1 Max or M1 Ultra at a discount.
- Apple Mac Mini with M2 ($499, originally $599 at Amazon, B&H Photo, or Adorama)
- Apple Mac Mini with M2 Pro ($1,149, originally $1,299 at Amazon, B&H Photo, or Adorama)
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
